News: Anyone wishing to register as a new member on the forum is strongly recommended to use a "proper" email address - following recent spam/hack attempts on the forum, all security is set to "high", and "disposable" email addresses like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail tend to be viewed with suspicion, and the application rejected if there is any doubt whatsoever

Maybe I should ask my daughter to get her job back in the local chip shop. (A-levels got in the way).

Seriously though, something makes me think the full value of pure veggie oil is just under that of diesel. If thousands of cars can run it, folks will be happy to pay 20% less than diesel and demand will increase due to spiralling fossil costs and the environmental benifits.

If I'm right we can expect more and more companies to market veggy stuff and all the "waste" will increase in value significantly. In that case, the days of cheap veggie oil new or old will be on the decline?

Yep, I think you are right Paul. I've heard more than a few rumours that a lot of companies are hiring the oil, rather than selling it - thus retaining the rights to take it away. Can't see that this would work legally - what about the oil that's consumed - do they own that? Doesn't that make it their responsibility to pay for its disposal? What if a chip shop sells *really* greasy chips - do they have to pay extra, like those mileage penalty clauses in hire car contracts?

And if they can really get 60p a litre for used oil, shouldn't they be providing the virgin stuff to restaurants etc free of charge?

i found that out two years ago..... that waste vegetable oil can be more expensive then new local produced one ( if you try to buy it from the collectors) , perhaps or in the irish case they shipp it to germany to get good monney ... so the germans make biodiesel out of it ...to be sold at stations , and the biodiesel price i guess will go up like the oil price....

Around 6 months ago, when Arrow oils were advertising filtered WVO for 24p per litre, and I was desperate for some more oil, I contacted them to arrange an IBC delivery. But first, I wanted to know what they meant by "filtered", and to what specification they filtered to.

The bottom line was that they were prepared to sell me an IBC for 24p per litre plus VAT and £25 deposit on the IBC, delivered. They could not tell me anything at all about the filtration process and could not give a specification either.

I did not buy from them because I did not get the impression that they were a reputable company to deal with and they did not know the product they were selling. Besides, at that time, kerosene was more cost effective.

Others contacted were a massive oil re-processor in Birmingham (did not want to deal in small 1000 litre IBC quantities - even if I wanted 5 - 6 of them), and also a re-processor (or agent) in Southampton - he could provide oil but again, no specification, and higher prices than Arrow.

I have widened my collection activity now; I collect from 14 pubs each month and am looking to expand that again to about 30. As you can see, it is not a game for people who are time poor. It is becoming harder and harder to get hold of waste oil.

It really depends on the number of fryers an establishment has - not so much how much business it does (but of course they are related).

Typically, a small food pub would have 2 fryers; they would generate about 20 - 30 litres of waste oil a month. Larger food pubs would probably have 4 fryers and generate around 40 - 50 litres a month of waste oil. Of course, over this period, they will consume about double these quantities with about half disappearing into the food.

Chip shops tend to use solid fat (hydrogenated). I try to avoid these guys because the waste oil is harder to process - and the oil providers are starting to take it back. Chip shops tend to abuse their oils and probably only discard 20 - 30% of the oil they consume (the rest going into the food). So a small turnover chip shop may generate only 20 litres per month (of solid fat) but the larger ones could be up to 60 litres and maybe more.

I have yet to find a single Chinese / Indian takeaway that discards their waste oil - they even claim it is "long life" so NEVER change it, or use it as a base for their sauces.

Generally, only 50 - 60%% of what I collect is useable oil. The rest is water, animal fats, starch, sugar, gums and water complexes.